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With amazing vividness, Nina Foch essays Henry James's earliest (1881) and perhaps most accessible masterpiece. A penniless American girl is brought to Europe where her beauty, ingenuousness, and na?veté attract a variety of suitors. In spite of wanting to do everything right, everything comes out wrong in this perceptive, subtle, and multilayered psychological novel, which Foch plays like a musical instrument. A rather loud one -- she hits all the notes correctly but coarsely. The effect is like a bordello pianist--albeit one with nimble fingers--playing Chopin on an old upright. A maladroit abridgment causes occasional confusion. 内容简介
Capturing the grandeur of a gracious, splendid Europe of wealth and Old World sensibilities, this glorious, complex novel has become a touchstone for a great writer's entire literary achievement. From the opening pages, when the high-spirited American girl Isabel Archer arrives at the English manor Gardencourt, James's luminous, superbly crafted prose creates an atmosphere of intensity, expectation, and incomparable beauty.
Isabel, who has been taken abroad by an eccentric aunt to fulfill her potential, attracts the passions of a British aristocrat and a brash American, as well as the secret adoration of her invalid cousin, Ralph Touchett. But her vulnerability and innocence lead her not to love but to a fatal entrapment in intrigue, deception, and betrayal. This brilliant interior drama of the forming of a woman's consciousness makes The Portrait of a Lady a masterpiece of James's middle years. 作者简介
Henry James was born on April 15, 1843, on Washington Place in New York to the most intellectually remarkable of American families. His father, Henry Jane Sr., was a brilliant and eccentric religious philosopher; his brother was the first great American psychologists and the author of the influential Pragmatism; his sister, Alice, though an invalid for most of her life, was a talented conversationalist, a lively letter writer, and a witty observer of the art and politics of her time.
In search of the proper education for his children, Henry senior sent them to schools in America, France, Germany, and Switzerland. Returning to America, Henry junior lived in Newport, briefly attended Harvard Law School, and in 1864 began contributing stories and book reviews to magazines. Two more trips to Europe led to his final decision to settle there, first in Paris in 1875, then in London next year.
James's first major novel, Roderick Hudson, appeared in 1875, but it was "Daisy Miller" (1878) that brought him international fame as the chronicler of American expatriates and their European adventures. His novels include The American (1877), Washington Square (1880), Princess Casamassia (1886), and the three late masterpieces, The Wings of the Dove (1902), The Ambassadors (1903) and The Garden Bowl (1904). He also wrote plays, criticism, autobiography, travel books (including The American Scene, 1907) and some of the finest shot stories in the English language.
His later works were little read during his lifetime but have since come to be recognized as forerunners of literary modernism. Upon the outbreak of World War I, James threw his energies into war relief work and decided to adopt British citizenship. One month before his death, in 1916, he received the Order of Merit from King George V.,,
好的,以下是一本虚构的图书简介,内容不涉及《贵妇的肖像》。 --- 《星尘彼岸:失落文明的航海日志》 探索未知,追寻回响的史诗 作者: 伊莲娜·维斯珀(Elara Vesper) 出版信息: 苍穹之眼出版社,首版精装 页数: 880页(含全彩插图与星图) 装帧: 硬壳精装,附带烫金书签 --- 内容提要: 《星尘彼岸》并非一部单纯的科幻小说,它是一部宏大叙事下的编年史,一卷跨越了数千年时空的文明挽歌。本书记录了“探寻者号”远征队,在失联三百年的时间里,对银河系边缘——被命名为“寂静之环”的未知扇区所进行的孤寂而艰险的航行。 故事的核心,围绕着失落的泰拉维安(Terra-Vian)帝国遗迹展开。泰拉维安文明,一个被所有已知星际联盟历史所遗忘的古老种族,据说掌握了超越空间折叠的“以太穿梭”技术。他们的文明在一夜之间蒸发,只留下了漂浮在虚空中的巨型纪念碑和一些无法破译的加密信息。 第一部:启航与幽灵信号 故事伊始,时间设定在人类文明步入“星际联邦时代”的第四个千年。探寻者号,一艘装备了实验性“奇点驱动”引擎的科学考察船,肩负着对泰拉维安文明残迹进行初步勘探的任务。船长,经验丰富的宇航生物学家卡西乌斯·雷恩,带领着一支由语言学家、古代物理学家和基因修复专家组成的精英团队,驶入了联邦官方划定的“禁区”——寂静之环。 前期的航行平稳而充满理论上的兴奋,直到他们在编号为“Χ-734”的星云深处,捕获到了一段微弱但结构异常复杂的信号。这段信号并非无线电波,而是一种通过扭曲局部引力场产生的“时空回响”。语言学家莉娅·索尔,凭借其对失传象形文字的深刻理解,初步判定这段回响指向一处被称为“起源之眼”的中心点。 然而,深入信号源的旅程充满了危险。探寻者号遭遇了无法解释的现象:船员经历了同步的、集体性的梦境,梦中充斥着陌生的色彩和令人心悸的巨大结构。这些并非简单的幻觉,而是更深层次的、对泰拉维安信息流的无意识接入。 第二部:琥珀世界与时间悖论 在对信号源的追踪中,船队抵达了一个被高密度惰性气体环绕的行星系统。这颗行星,被命名为“琥珀世界”,其地表被一层厚厚的、近乎固态的橙色晶体所覆盖。深入地表后,团队发现了泰拉维安的第一个完整遗迹——一座巨大的、未受侵蚀的城市,仿佛被时间冻结在了最后运行的那一刻。 这里的建筑材料对所有已知物理学定律构成了挑战,它们能够吸收和偏转光线,使得探寻者号的扫描设备几乎失效。真正的发现来自于对一座地下档案馆的破解。档案馆内储存的并非数据,而是“记忆晶体”——一种能够直接将完整生命体验灌输给接触者的媒介。 当卡西乌斯船长和莉娅接触了第一枚晶体后,他们目睹了泰拉维安文明鼎盛时期的景象,以及导致其衰落的灾难性事件:他们并非毁于战争,而是因为过度追求对“时间本体”的理解,最终打开了某种无法关闭的维度裂隙,导致他们的物质存在被“稀释”到宇宙背景辐射之中。 第三部:仲裁者与存在的代价 随着团队对记忆的深入挖掘,他们开始质疑联邦对泰拉维安历史的官方定论。他们发现,泰拉维安文明的“失踪”并非偶然,而是出于一种自我牺牲式的“仲裁”。为了防止其错误的技术(即“以太穿梭”)落入更具侵略性的外部文明手中,他们选择了一种彻底的自我抹除。 更令人不安的是,团队发现,在琥珀世界的最深处,还存在着一个“回声系统”。这个系统并非由泰拉维安生物构造,而是一种被他们的技术错误唤醒的、纯粹的熵(Entropy)集合体。它模仿着泰拉维安的形态,以“知识”为诱饵,试图将所有接触它的智慧生命同化,使其成为永恒虚无的一部分。 探寻者号的船员们面临着一个艰难的选择:是冒着被熵集合体吞噬的风险,将关于“以太穿梭”的知识带回联邦(这可能带来巨大的技术飞跃,也可能带来毁灭),还是遵循泰拉维安的遗愿,彻底销毁所有遗迹,让这段历史永远沉睡在星尘彼岸。 核心主题: 本书深入探讨了知识的边界、文明的责任感以及“遗忘”作为一种保护机制的可能性。它追问了我们是否真正拥有驾驭超越自身理解力的力量的权利。在浩瀚的宇宙中,有些秘密是否应该永远尘封?探寻者号的最终选择,将定义人类文明在星际道德光谱中的位置。 --- 荣誉推荐(虚构): “维斯珀女士为我们构建了一个令人窒息的宇宙图景,它比任何星图都更精确地描绘了人类心智的脆弱与伟大。”——《星际评论家》 “一部令人难以忘怀的史诗,完美地融合了哲学思辨与高概念硬科幻。读完后,你将对头顶的星空产生全新的敬畏。”——《纪元文学杂志》 --- 作者简介: 伊莲娜·维斯珀,当代最受瞩目的太空史诗作家之一。她的作品以严谨的科学设定、深邃的人文关怀以及宏大的叙事结构著称。她本人曾长期在深空观测站任职,对虚空中的孤寂感有着独特的体会。《星尘彼岸》是她历时十年构思的巅峰之作。